


Agent Carter vs. the Pinata

by Paeonia



Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: F/M, Family, Gen, Pinata, Post-Canon, peggysous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-02
Updated: 2015-04-02
Packaged: 2018-03-20 19:47:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3662712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paeonia/pseuds/Paeonia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Daddy, I need a crowbar. Where do we keep the crowbar?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Agent Carter vs. the Pinata

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr. Now with bonus scene!

"Daddy.

"Daddy.

_"Daddy."_

A little hand tugged his shirt sleeve, and Daniel turned from the dinner table. Across the table, Peggy’s eyebrows were raised almost to her hairline. But before he could say something to his daughter about not interrupting, she was explaining herself in the same loud whisper. “Daddy, I need a crowbar. Where do we keep the crowbar?”

That had not been what he’d been expecting to hear.  Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Howard leaning forward in delighted interest. “Emmie,” Daniel whispered back, “why do you need a crowbar?”

"For the  _pinata_. It won’t  _open_. I hit it and hit it but the candy won’t come out. So Vovô told me to get a crowbar.”

"Excuse me for a moment," he said. He picked up his crutch and followed his daughter out of the dining room and down to the laundry room.

"Pai, why are you sending your granddaughter after a crowbar and - and what are  _you_ doing?”

"Hanging it back up, of course." His father was standing on top of a chair in the middle of the laundry room (probably the ricketiest chair he could find in the house, Daniel thought in frustration, they  _had_ a stepladder for crying out loud) twisting a screw eye into a ceiling beam. “That little nail didn’t work, she had it down after just a couple of whacks.” He smiled fondly. “Here, Emilinha, hand it to me.” Emmie skipped a little in delight as he rehung the pinata.

Daniel’s father climbed down from the chair. “Okay,” he said to Emmie, “show us your stuff!”  Emmie took up the mop handle and started back in on the pinata. It swang wildly as she drubbed away, but showed no signs of breaking.

Daniel frowned. His daughter was determined, but she was getting tired and frustrated - on top of already being tired and overexcited and out of her routine. This did not bode well for a peaceful evening. 

"Emmie," he spoke up, "may I have a turn?"

"Oh, yes, daddy! Here’s the stick."

"Thanks, sweetheart, but I think I’ll use my own stick."

Emmie’s eyes grew wide and she scampered back to her grandfather’s side. Daniel widened his stance a little, shifted more of his weight to his good leg, and swung his crutch at the pinata.  It landed with a satisfying thwack, and the pinata leapt almost to the ceiling.

But there was no shower of candy, not even a promising dent.  Daniel took another swing - Emmie was bouncing on her toes - and then another as she shrieked with glee. Still no candy - dammit, what was going on with this thing? He swung at it again.

Howard’s voice came from the door: “Hey, you’re supposed to be blindfolded!” Daniel looked to the door. There was Howard, holding a drink in one hand and passing a second to his father. Peggy stood next to them.

"What is this thing, anyway?" Daniel demanded. "You didn’t make it yourself with some kind of super-strong wonder-alloy, did you?" He slipped his arm back into his crutch and accepted a drink from Peggy.

"I swear, it came straight from a stand in Acapulco to here, with no stop in the lab or the workshop." Howard came over and started poking at the pinata with his finger. "Certainly made the trip in good shape. Paper-mache’s tough stuff - come to think of it, they used it to make armor in ancient China, and with that laminar construction…"

"I’d like to give it a try," annouced Peggy. She handed her drink to Daniel’s father and took the mop handle from Emmie. Howard scrambled out of the way. She took three sharp swings at the pinata, with no success.

"Hmmm…" She put the mop handle aside.

"Want me to get the stapler?" asked Daniel. She turned and gave him the pretend-exasperated  _oh please_  look he’d been hoping for. Her gaze fell on his crutch. “Darling, may I…?” She held out her hand.

Daniel took a step back. “Oh no my love.  This is mine.”

Her lips twitched in a smile. “I suppose I’ll just have to improvise. Emmie, what else do you think we could use?”

"A crowbar?"

"I don’t think we have a crowbar, dearest. What do we have that’s handy?"

" ‘Eyes open!’ " Emmie chanted as she scouted the laundry room. "What about this?" She brought over a metal dustpan.

"Good idea! Let’s give it a try, then, shall we?"  Peggy bounced it in her hand, judging its weight, and then used it like a hatchet in a swift, vicious blow.

"That’s cheating, Peg," said Howard. "You have to use a stick, like they do in Mexico."  

"Welcome to America," she replied. "And since when is Mr. Innovation concerned with sticking to the way Mexico or anyone else does anything?" She struck at the pinata again with the dustpan, and again, and then set it aside.

"Emmie, let’s go see what else we can find." She took her daughter’s hand and they went back out through the family room.

"Mr. Stark, I hope you’re not playing a trick on my granddaughter."

"Oh, I know better than that, Mr. Sousa. Daniel would kill me, if Peggy didn’t beat him to it. My only hope would be to crawl away while they argued over who would kill me first."

When Peggy and Emmie reappeared, Emmie carried a bowl and a long-handled metal skimmer. Peggy had a butter warmer and a rolling pin. She also had a bottle of port, which she handed to her father-in-law. After a sip from her glass, and a wink to her husband, she handed the rolling pin to Emmie and let her go to work. 

When Emmie had had enough, Peggy took over with the butter warmer. After a few swings, Daniel thought he heard a slight difference in the sound of the thwack. 

Peggy seemed to as well. “Emmie, how about you give the skimmer a try now?”

A few swings with the skimmer, and suddenly the pinata gave up its treasures. Emmie ran back and forth gathering the candy and putting it in the bowl. Howard and Daniel’s father headed back to the dining room.

Daniel walked over to where Peggy was standing, the butter warmer still in her hand. She looked up as she heard him approaching and smiled.

"Congratulations, Director Carter," he murmured. "Mission accomplished."

She looked down at Emmie. “How bedtime is going to be accomplished tonight I have no idea.”

"I’ll put her to bed," said Daniel. He added, in a whisper, "Can you get rid of Howard?"

She smiled again - that sly, wry, bewitching smile - and, once again, Daniel felt his heart feeling like it would burst with happiness.

 

* * *

 

_(post-credits bonus scene)_

 

Daniel had never come back down to the living room after taking Emmie off to bed, so once Howard had been sent on his way, Peggy had a pretty good idea of what she'd find upstairs. And sure enough, when she quietly opened Emmie's bedroom door, there was Daniel fast asleep in the rocking chair, and next to him, in the bed...

 

Peggy's tender smile fell away. "Emmie!"

Instead of being asleep, Emmie was sitting in the middle of a pile of open picture books, staring sheepishly at Peggy.  A pile of books... and Peggy noticed Emmie's small hand slipping something furtively under the covers... and then other somethings sprinkled among the books.

 

 _Candy wrappers_.

 

Emmie snapped off the light, flung her head on the pillow, and screwed her eyes shut in desperation. "Good night Mommy!"

 

 

 

 


End file.
